Jennifro

"I'm on a Boat!"

(and it's going fast)

Nicholas was Gilligan for sure. As Captain Ed's sidekick, he learned a lot, which was great by me and made him feel cool. It's amazing how relaxing it is to spend your days on the water. I could easily do this for months on end--with the summer sun being my one requirement.

At one point we hit a spot near the Chesapeake Bay where the water was brackish--is that right? Part fresh water, part salt. It was super hot so we all jumped in. While we were swimming someone started talking about jellyfish and I screamed down-right loud at Natalie, "A jellyfish is by your leg!!" lying of course, but hoping to scare the pizzle out of her. At that very moment, in an ironic twist of fate, she began to cry and scream in pain. I thought she was being insanely obnoxious so I yelled back something dear like, "I was kidding! don't be an idiot!" till I realized she weren't faking it! We all squinted keenly at the water and *$@*#!! if we hadn't crashed a jelly fish convention!

covered in burning welts

so sorry. bad mom

Nicholas took to whittling round about day four and

carved this brilliant little boat--the sail came later

I love a tan about as much as anything

but less than her

Mitchell found his passion

The night we camped on the dock at St. Mary's, might go down as one of the top three days of my kids' lives. They spent about five hours fishing and catching crabs. At first they weren't having any luck, and they couldn't tear their novice eyes from the one other guy there who was pulling them out faster than you could say, "toad fish." Finally, after they stared at him all hungry-like for a good hour, he helped them catch a few soft shell crabs to use as bait. "Whoomp there it is!" You can't imagine all they caught after that. As I looked on proudly from my gently swaying hammock, I couldn't help but feel comforted knowing that the quote "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" could now, quite literally, be applied to my own household.

Ed taught them the proper way to clean a fish

(the fish thanks you, Ed)

The crabs were an especially big hit, but we didn't eat them, thank heavens. Ed used to be a crabber and said they were too small. He also demonstrated that if you stroke their underside it hypnotizes them and calms them right down. Pretty cool this unknown water world.

fried fish and Old Bay fries

finger lickin' good!

"whadda ya say we give the kids away and sail to Bermuda?"

oh Nick...you're so romantic!

don't you dare put down that pole

And just like that a storm was upon us! Batten down the hatches for real. At some point during the deluge, the brand new dingy broke lose! (finally some real adventure Nick thinks) A half an hour later, it is spotted and must be retrieved!

there it is! under the cover of trees

oh honey.. were you born this brave?!

and then.. just as HE promised, a rainbow

The storm ceased, the fog settled and I finally got my picture of Mt. Vernon, as we sailed our way toward home.

"I'm on a boat!"

(hey Ma, if you could see me now)